Thursday, October 23, 2014

[NEWS]: BETTE MIDLER COVERS TLC's 'WATERFALLS'

For the most part, "Waterfalls" should be performed by TLC.

Bette Midler, however, is an exception, because the 68-year-old's cover of Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas and the late Left "Eye" Lopes' 1995 single is a fresh, soulful take on the beloved R&B hit.

The song, debuted by The Advocate Thursday, will be featured on Midler's new album It's The Girls! This album–Midler's first since 2006–is all about the celebration of girl groups.

"I have loved the sound of females harmonizing since I was a kid; I always sang along. Didn't we all?" Midler told Billboard. "I think the idea that you could become part of the group was the thing that endeared me to the girl groups. You weren't just singing along, you were THERE!"

"Since this is a kind of overview of girl groups, I wanted to re-arrange some of the really popular songs and put a new spin on them," she explained. The "most extreme example" of this, Midler said, is what Billboard calls her "country-fied take" on The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love."

"Yes, I love the music these women made, but I also love the world of the groups themselves," she wrote. "The legends, the rumors, the hair!! How many movies and books have come out of that world? Not enough, if you ask me!! Some of the groups were formed and trained at home, like the Boswells and the Andrews Sisters, some were put together by the labels themselves, and some met on street corners or subway staircases, looking for an echo. But whether they were sister acts or musical arranged marriages, they all had one thing in common, that SOUND!"

"Some girl groups survived, some didn't; some were taken advantage of, some wrote their own rules, many went through fire just for the chance to sing," Midler acknowledged. "There is no denying that much of what they went through, just as women, was difficult, but there is also no denying that what they gave to the world is still relevant, and still necessary; joy, attitude, and the golden dream of a youth that will never fade."

"They say behind every great man, there's a great woman," she wrote "Well, I think that behind every great woman, there should be at least two other women singing and dancing in perfect unison."